The Return of Seawatch Books

Good news for scratch modelers! Seawatch Books, which brought us amazing titles by David Antscherl, Rob Napier, Gilbert McArdle, and others is back up and running under new ownership.

The previous owner, Bob Friedman, has been talking about his retirement for some time now, and earlier this year, the store went off-line pending sale to a new owner. Apparently, the early attempts at selling the company didn’t work out. But, then ship modeler Mike Ellison came along and saved the day, and the site just officially went live.

Perhaps one of the best known titles from Seawatch Books is the 4-volume series, The Fully Framed Model, HMN Swan Class Sloops 1767-1780.

To celebrate and to offer my support, I’ll probably pick up a title. Right now, I’m leaning toward either the book on building HMS Sussex, by Gilbert McArdle, or the two-volume series The Ketch Rigged Sloop Speedwell of 1752. Of course, I’ll post a write up about whatever I eventually get..

 

 

Will I ever get around to scratch building something based on one of these books? Who knows? But, it’s great “dream” material!

Check out the full range of their offerings at seawatchbooks.com. Ω

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Friday the 13th of January – A Late Christmas Day

Not meaning to be blasphemous here! Just that Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day for some, but has traditionally been a good day for me. In fact, I got three new goodies in the mail that day, all ship modeling related, of course!

Out of Stock – Rigging Period Ship Models by Lennarth Petersson

Just found out last week that Rigging Period Ship Models, the classic ship modeling book by Lennarth Petersson and published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press, is no longer “in stock” with the publisher. I hear that as meaning “out of print,” but that’s not how they put it. According to the person I spoke with at USNI, there is no official word as to whether or not they may do another printing or possibly a short run. But, apparently there are a lot of backorders for it, so maybe something will happen.

I noticed that the follow-up book, Rigging Period Fore-and-Aft Craft, is currently in soft cover form, while this book was in hardcover. Now, I’m wondering if they may be planning to go softcover with this one too, which would make sense.

Regardless, if you’re planning on getting this book eventually, I still see new copies available at normal prices, so you may want to get one sooner rather than later, unless you want to go the used book route or wait to see if there is a soft cover release.

If they do go with soft cover, it usually means a significantly lower price, so maybe this isn’t a bad thing for this book which otherwise lists at $46.

NRG Shop Notes Out of Print

I just learned this week that the Nautical Research Guild has run out of the original Ship Modeler’s Shop Notes book.

This is a classic compilation of technical articles from the first 25 years of the Nautical Research Journal and the NRG’s Secretary’s Monthly Letter. My own copy is pretty well worn out, but it looks like it’s going to have to keep together a little while longer and, fortunately, Ship Modeler’s Shop Notes II, which is made up of articles from the 1981-2005 is still available.

If you find an available copy of Shop Notes available and don’t have one, you might want to snatch it up. However, it’s probably not gone for good. At some point, I suspect that the NRG will offer it again in some form or another.